The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Augusta, John

AUGUSTA, John, a Bohemian theologian, born in Prague in 1500, died Jan. 13, 1575. He studied theology at the school of Waclaw Koranda. On the death of this master Augusta went to Wittenberg, and entered into close communion with Luther and Melanchthon. He became later bishop of the Bohemian Brethren, brought about an agreement between that sect and the Protestants, and induced the Brethren to refuse their coöperation to Ferdinand I. in the Smalcaldic war against the Protestants; a contumacy which Ferdinand avenged after the war was over by banishing the whole sect and arresting the principal preachers. Augusta, who had attempted to escape in the garb of a peasant, was taken in chains to Prague, and thrown into prison. He was offered his liberty on condition of making public recantation and becoming either a Catholic or a Utraquist. He was ready to profess himself a Utraquist, but not to recant in public, and he accordingly remained in prison 16 years. The death of Ferdinand (1564) released him, but he was obliged to promise not to preach again.